Yale University is home to the oldest college art gallery in the United States, with over 185,000 pieces from all over the world, ancient and modern alike. But until recently, it didn't receive much foot traffic.
As the Deputy Director for Programs and External Affairs and Curator of Artist Initiatives and Special Projects at the Yale Art Gallery, Anna Hammond is largely responsible for increasing the collection's visibility among students. Hammond spoke to a small crowd in Meyerson Hall as part of PennDesign's lecture series yesterday about Yale's commitment to "raise the profile of the arts in education."
In 2001, a committee evaluating Yale's undergraduate program concluded that the university's vast art collection ought to be more heavily integrated into the curriculum.
As part of the initiative, students are now able to not only learn about art history and the artistic process, but also interact with visiting artists and teach community members about pieces in the Yale collection.
Previously, many Yale art courses lacked what Hammond calls "education with objects." Rather, students were taught with slides of prominent art while many originals in Yale's gallery received little attention.
Now, art classes meet in the gallery or a storage facility for most or all sessions.
In addition, students of various disciplines work together for three semesters to learn the "value of artistic experience," Hammond said, by creating and installing exhibitions, which she cites as the "jewels" of the new program.
One such exhibition honored the history of the gallery's newly renovated Louis Kahn building, while another, "What Is a Line?" explored the role of the line in art.
While Hammond admits that the ideas behind Yale's program are not new, they are being pursued with renewed vigor and are redefining the "relationship between works of art and people."
Penn graduate students were impressed by Hammond's work and believe Penn could benefit from such a program.
"The [Penn] lecture series is very interdisciplinary, but it'd be nice to have more interaction with galleries, art students and artists," said first-year Master of Fine Arts student Elizabeth Hoy.
Prior to her current post at Yale, Hammond was the director of writing services at New York's Museum of Modern Art.
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